Transforming the Public Sector for Climate …...Transforming the Public Sector for Climate...
Transcript of Transforming the Public Sector for Climate …...Transforming the Public Sector for Climate...
Transforming the Public Sector for Climate Governance: The Case of
Ghana
By Amb Mercy Debrah-Karikari Secretary to the Cabinet – Ghana
2018 CAPAM, Georgetown - Guyana
Content
• About Ghana • Climate change issues • Small scale and illegal mining • Negative impact of illegal
mining • Measures towards addressing
impact of illegal mining • Public sector institutional
arrangements for climate governance • conclusion
About Ghana
• Ghana formerly Gold Cost • Gained independence on 6th
March, 1957 • Operates constitutional
democracy • Several political phases now
4th Republic • Population of about 30 million • Land size of 283,533km2
• Has 93,000km2 of forest
About Ghana
• GDP of USD47.33billion • Per capita of USD1,642 • Located close to the centre
of the world • Rich in natural resources • Second largest producer of
cocoa • Produces quality
chocolates with natural cocoa
Climate change issues
• Since independence: • Lost 24% forest resources • Mean annual rainfall
dropped by more than 22% • Average temperature has
risen about 5% • Waterbodies are drying up
Small-scale mining (SMM)
• Mining contributes 5% to GDP • Generates 35% of export
earnings • Small-scale mining employs
1million and supports 5million others • USD2billion earned annually
from small-scale mining
Small-scale mining (SMM)
• Small scale gold exports (1989-2014)
Small-scale mining (SMM)
• SMM is over 2000 years • Legally regulated since 1989 • Regulation was to address
smuggling of gold and diamonds outside the country • And to sanitise the sector and
improve its economic contribution
Small-scale mining (SMM)
• Law required licensing • Concession limited to 25
acres • No mining in forest
reserves and rivers • Individuals and groups can
register • Only 300 registered miners
Negative impact of SMM
• Due to poor regulation and monitoring • Deaths from collapsed pits
and drowning • Soil surface destroyed
affected economic activities • Forests destroyed • Waterbodies contaminated
with toxic
Addressing illegal mining
• Ban announced in April, 2017 • Objective was to stop
pollution and sanitise sector • Interministerial committee
set up • $100million allocated for
afforestation
Addressing illegal mining
• 10,000 youth employed to plant trees • Operation Vanguard set up
to enforce ban • Public education and
alternative livelihood programmes for miners • Drones and satellite
systems deployed
Enhancing climate governance
• Ghana committed to several international protocols • Promoting renewable
energy • Adopting climate resilient
programmes • Institutional arrangements
in place
Governance structure
National National Climate Change
Committee
Ministries, Civil Society and Private Sector
Served by 7 Technical Working Groups for priority areas for
policy development
Regional Regional Climate Change
Committees
Regional EPA Offices, Regional Coordinating Councils and
others
Coordinates implementation of climate activities at the
regional level
District • District / Local Level
District Climate Change Monitoring Committees
Monitoring the operations of the various implementing
agencies
Organogram
Alternative livelihood and reafforestation
Thank You
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Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (CAPAM) 2018 Biennial Conference in Georgetown, Guyana under the theme “Transforming the
Public Sector for Climate Governance”
Presentation by Amb Mercy Debrah-Karikari, the Secretary to the Cabinet of Ghana
Salutations
I bring you greetings from the people of Ghana and express my appreciation to the organisers
for the opportunity to share with you our thoughts and policies on this important subject. I
believe the theme has been aptly chosen for us as public sector players, and that this
conference provides a great opportunity for us to assess the programmes in our respective
countries to promote processes and practices that have the potential to protect our planet and
promote its positive advancement. I have the firm conviction that any small effort in support
of good climate governance is worth undertaking, for it is general knowledge that when the
last tree dies, the last man dies. And since none of us wants to die, we will help the trees to
live.
I am speaking on the topic “Transforming the Public Sector for Climate Governance: The
Case of Ghana” and I will focus my presentation on these areas:
• A brief about Ghana, for those who are not familiar with my country; • Why climate change issues are important to the country, I will focus on only one issue
– small-scale and illegal mining. In Ghana, we refer to illegal mining as “Galamsey”, a term derived from the phrase “Gather and sell”.
• Steps the country is taking to address illegal mining, climate change and environmental issues;
• Public sector institutional arrangements to implement climate change programmes in line with the country’s commitment to international protocols
• Conclusion
About Ghana
Ghana, formerly Gold Coast, gained independence from the British on 6th March, 1957. We
have since then gone through various political phases. In 1992, Ghana began the 4th Republic
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under a constitutional democracy with three independent arms of government : the Executive
Judiciary and the Legislature. The country has a population of about 30 million and a total
land area of 238,533km2. Ghana is regarded a as middle income economy with a GDP of
USD 47.33billion and per capita income of USD 1,642.1
Ghana has many natural resources and unique geography and physical location. It is the
closest land to the point where the Equator intersects the Greenwich Meridian. So, Ghana has
been described by many physical geographers as the “Centre of the World”. The land is rich
in vegetation, oil and mineral resources such as diamond and gold. The colonial name “Gold
Coast” is a testament of this endowment. Ghana is now the second largest producer of cocoa
in the world, and produces one of the best
chocolates containing 100% natural cocoa.
Climate change issues are critical to Ghana because
of certain experiences arising from the impact of
the environment:
• The country has suffered significant deforestation and desertification – (lost about
24% of its tropical forest);
• Volumes of annual rainfall have been dwindling persistently (mean annual rainfall
since independence has dropped by more than 22%)
• Temperature levels are rising (about 5% higher since independence)2
• Waterbodies are drying up.
1 World Development Indicators databasehttp://databank.worldbank.org/data/views/reports/reportwidget.aspx?Report_Name=CountryProfile&Id=b450fd57&tbar=y&dd=y&inf=n&zm=n&country=GHA 2 Amisah S., Gyampo, B. A., & Quagrainie, K. K. (2010). Livelihood trends in Response to Climate Change in Forest Fringe Communities in the Offin Basin in Ghana
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In Ghana, small-scale mining is one of the key economic activities that have been identified
as inimical to the united efforts to combat environmental degradation and climate change.
Small Scale mining in Ghana
Mining of Gold and diamond is a major economic activity in Ghana. The mining sector
contributes about 5% to Ghana’s GDP, compared to Agriculture that contributes 25%. Ghana
is an agrarian economy, so
the mining sector
contribution of 5% is
significant, since it is
greater than the annual
investment in Defence.
Revenue from Mining
constitutes 35% of Ghana’s
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export earnings3 and small-scale mining plays a significant role in terms of contribution to
mining revenue and employment.
Ghana’s mining is in two categories, the formal large-scale mining which is operated by
corporations registered under the Ghana Chamber of Mines. There is also the small-scale
mining, which refers to the use of traditional labour-intensive methods for extraction and
processing of mineral ore.
The small-scale mining sector provides employment to over one million people and supports
close to five million4 others. About USD2.0 billion in annual export revenue is generated
from small-scale mining activities.
However, most of the mining activities take place in our tropical forest which has an area of
93,000km2. As you are aware, the forest serves as rain-cover to protect the environment and
helps in controlling temperature. Also, rivers and other waterbodies in the forests serve as
drinking water for the people. Cocoa, one of Ghana’s major exports, as well as other food and
cash crops grow in these forests. This implies that mining invariably affects these other
activities in terms of competition for land space.
Illegal Mining (Galamsey) in Ghana
The challenges with mining exacerbate with regard to illegal small-scale mining. It is
estimated that the practice of small-scale mining has been in Ghana for more than 2000 years,
but was never regulated legally until 1989. Among the key reasons for regulating the sector
was the need to address the smuggling of gold and diamonds outside the country and to
formalise the sector to enhance the economic benefits for the country.
3 Ghana Statistical Service (2018) Provisional 2017 Annual Gross Domestic Product http://www.statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/GDP/GDP2018/ 4 McQuilken, J and Hilson, G (2016). Artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Ghana Evidence to inform an ‘action dialogue’
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The legal framework regulating the sector allows individuals or groups who want to enter
into small-scale mining to register with the Minerals Commission and acquire a license to
mine on a concession
not exceeding 25 acres
of land. Only about
three hundred (300)
miners have registered
legally with the
Minerals Commission,
but more than one million people are working in the sector. The miners are also required to
comply with certain environmental practices, including reclamation of land. They are also not
allowed to mine in or close to Forest Reserves as part of the measures to protect the fauna and
flora in the reserves. The Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for monitoring the
operations of the miners to ensure that they employ environmentally friendly methodologies
in line with government policy and laws. Unfortunately, the illegal miners have created
difficulties with regulation and compliance with the legal regime.
Negative Impact of Illegal Mining
The widespread illegal surface mining, which has led to a high rate of forest destruction and
high emissions, and caused climate change and related development challenges have been
attributed to government policy to allow surface mining in the country instead of
underground mining. Besides the challenges with the enactment of laws for regulating
surface mining, poor environmental governance and weak enforcement have compounded
illegal mining practices. The result is complete abuse of the concession rights and use of
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unapproved methods that have endangered the ecology and created the environmental
menace that requires huge investment to address.
Deaths
Illegal mining has caused a lot of havoc to the land after the mining activities are done. Pits
dug to extract the mineral deposits have become death traps. Many people, including children
have died as a result of the collapse of such pits or drowned in the water that filled the pits. In
2013 alone, over 300 people died from the collapse of mining pits. The death toll was
projected to be rising annually due to the level of destruction to the land surface.
Economic Activities
Most illegal mining activities are done by digging the surface of the land. In rocky areas,
dynamites and other explosives are used. This destroys the forest and the land surface,
making it unsafe for further economic activity. The activities also cause decomposing rocks
to be broken into smaller particles which mix with the soil. Furthermore, the water holding
capacity of the soil decreases as water permeability increases with the weak surface soil,
making it difficult to use the land for any useful economic activity such as farming.
Waterbodies
Besides the destruction to the land,
waterbodies are contaminated with
dangerous chemicals. A report from the
Ministry of Environment, Science,
Technology and Innovation indicated
that about 57% of waterbodies in
mining communities are contaminated with dangerous metals, exposing the community
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members to significant health threats. Some of the toxic materials include Mercury (Hg),
Arsenic (As), Copper (Cu), Chromium (Cr), Antimony (Sb), Sulphur (S), Aluminium (Al),
Manganese (Mn), Cadmium (Cd) and Lead (Pb).
For instance, mercury vapour when inhaled can cause memory and speech loss, numbness,
vision problems, convulsion and in some cases death. Dust and fumes from drilling and
blasting can also cause serious health complications or death. In 2016, about 100 members of
one community died of a strange disease, which was attributed to the illegal mining activities
around this community. It is estimated that it will take about 200 years to be able to correct
the effect of these chemicals from the environment.
School dropout and teenage pregnancy
Illegal mining activities have attracted children of school going age. These children drop out
of school and the girls among them indulge in sexual activities leading to teenage pregnancy
and attendant challenges. These are just a few of the problems the Government of Ghana is
dealing with regarding human activities that are threatening the environment.
Addressing Illegal Mining
The Government of Ghana regards climate issues as developmental and has therefore
instituted some measures to
improve climate governance. It
was against the commitment to
protect the environment that a
moratorium was placed on all
small-scale mining activities to
take effect from April 2017. The objective was to:
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• Stop the pollution of water bodies; • Halt deforestation; • Halt land degradation; • Stop illegal small-scale mining activities, including:
o diversion of tailings into water bodies, o mining in river beds (dredging), o mining on riverbanks, o mining in forest reserves, o degrading and/or non-reclamation of land, o use of dangerous chemicals such as mercury, o engagement of small-scale mining activities by foreigners, and o use of heavy earth moving equipment such as excavators.
As part of the measures to enforce the ban and to ensure steps are taken to address the
challenges associated with small-scale mining in a sustainable manner, an interministerial
committee was established to strengthen governance systems and stakeholder engagements to
sanitise the regulatory regime. To implement its mandate, the interministerial committee set
up a taskforce, referred to as “Operation Vanguard”, to ensure compliance with the ban or
arrest recalcitrant miners and seize their equipment. Operation Vanguard comprised 400
officers from the Ghana Armed Forces and the Police Service.
Apart from the ban, Government instituted measures to reclaim lands devastated by illegal
mining operations. An amount of one hundred million United Stated Dollars
(USD100.0million) has been earmarked for land reclamation for areas destroyed by illegal
mining activities. About 10,000 youth have been employed to replant trees in the forest
areas.
Other measures established to improve regulatory compliance include:
• Public education on the negative effects of small-scale mining; • Provision of training on sustainable environmental practices for small-scale miners
and alternative livelihoods; • Deployment of drones and satellite technology to monitor mining in targeted areas.
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Government is currently considering a review of the small-scale mining operations, with a
view to making regulatory changes, if necessary, to stop surface mining.
Measures to Enhance Climate Governance
Beyond illegal mining, Government has identified the need to strengthen climate governance
through cross-sectorial activities. It is observed that climate issues are multisectoral.
Therefore, it is necessary to bring these sectors together to work on common projects to
mitigate climate challenges in a sustainable manner.
Ghana’s commitment to efficient climate governance and a clean planet is evidenced in its
active participation in international conferences such as the 2015 United Nations Climate
Change Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris. Ghana has initiated various programmes to
implement the recommendations from the Paris Agreement, which provides a pathway to
limit global temperature rise to below 2 degrees.
Ghana submitted a total of 20 mitigation and 11 adaptation programme actions in 7 priority
economic sectors. These sectors comprise energy, land, forestry, transport, waste, health and
industry. These sectors were carefully selected based on the country’s peculiarity and
obligations under international protocols such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC).
Some of the adopted initiatives include policy and regulatory reforms with the aim to manage
climate risk, increase low-carbon electricity supply, scale up adoption of renewable energy,
promote sustainable transport, reduce
deforestation, mobilise finance and
facilitate engagement with relevant
stakeholders through outreach
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programmes. These initiatives are already yielding positive results in building resilience,
saving Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and putting the economy on a sustainable
pathway to facilitate speedy socioeconomic development of the country. Ghana has also
signed the MINAMATA Convention. The Convention seeks to reduce the use of mercury in
artisanal mining activities in order to reduce health risks. Based on this, the United Nations
Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) is collaborating with Ghana to carryout
projects related to mercury pollution abatement.
In order to ensure effective implementation and monitoring of the initiatives outlined under
these programmes, some institutional arrangements have been established at all levels of the
Governance structure. Each of the entities has a clear mandate, support systems and scope of
work.
Climate Governance Structure
National
National Climate Change Committee
Ministries, Civil Society and Private Sector
Served by 7 Technical Working Groups for
priority areas for policy development
Regional
Regional Climate Change Committees
Regional EPA Offices, Regional Coordinating Councils and others
Coordinates implementation of
climate activities at the regional level
District
• District / Local Level
District Climate Change Monitoring Committees
Monitoring the operations of the
various implementing agencies
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Organogram for the Implementation of the National Climate Change Programmes
Conclusion
Ghana has had and continues to have an unpleasant experience about the negative effects of
environmental degradation. The lessons from the negative impact of surface mining are
helping the nation to unite to find ways to address the issues of land degradation, pollution of
waterbodies, destruction of aqua life, health and other climatic issues. All stakeholders have
joined the campaign against illegal mining and consideration is being given to move away
from small scale mining completely, if necessary.
Ghana remains committed to its international obligations under conventions and protocols it
has acceded to. Forums such as CAPAM also provide additional opportunities to learn more
from colleagues and to share our lessons to foster common and united action towards
enhancing climate governance. I thank you for your attention.